2009-12-23 Meetup

What, just because it’s two days before Christmas we can’t rock the bbPress? In summary: anonymous comments from filosofo and email from photomatt (me) on deck, bug fixes to make things sing, PeteMall will be directly committing fixes, and hajii will be bug gardening.

Meetup log after the jump:

[13:01] <photomatt> <meetup>
[13:02] <photomatt> merry christmas everyone 🙂
[13:02] <filosofo> merry Christmas, photomatt 🙂
[13:02] <photomatt> what is everyone up to these holidays?
[13:03] <hajii> workin 🙂
[13:03] <filosofo> Visiting the in-laws
[13:03] <filosofo> photomatt, didn’t you write bbPress over Christmas? If I’m remembering correctly.
[13:04] <photomatt> yep, 4 years ago?
[13:04] <photomatt> 5?
[13:04] <photomatt> I was young and foolish
[13:05] <hajii> young-ER
[13:05] <photomatt> ha 😉
[13:05] <hajii> anything on the agenda this week?
[13:06] <photomatt> I cut my teeth yesterday, silly fix
[13:06] <photomatt> some error notification stuff with 5.3
[13:07] <photomatt> so now you don’t see a page of white errors when trying to install
[13:07] <photomatt> but on the bright side I got my bbpress env all up and kicking
[13:08] <filosofo> So what’s the roadmap for bbPress development? How can we get things moving?
[13:09] <filosofo> For example, should we start tackling the conversion to wp canonical plugin?
[13:09] <photomatt> my todo for the holiday is 1 thing: email notification
[13:10] <filosofo> There’s a plugin already for that, right?
[13:10] <filosofo> Can you just roll in the code?
[13:10] <westi|gone> howdy all
[13:11] * westi|gone is now known as westi
[13:11] <filosofo> hello westi
[13:11] <photomatt> filosofo: buddypress has a pretty good integration method already
[13:11] <photomatt> filosofo: do you have a fav plugin for it? could just roll in code
[13:11] <westi> photomatt: did you see my note regarding your first 5.3 related change – I think you might have broken the PHP4 compat of the code before you had the right error hiding
[13:12] <filosofo> photomatt, I haven’t used email notification on bbPress, I just know of the plugin[s]’ existence.
[13:13] <hajii> What is 5.3, the PHP Version 5.3 where people where getting warnings?
[13:13] <hajii> -h
[13:13] <westi> hajii: yes PHP 5.3
[13:13] <photomatt> westi: yes, the glotpress and backpress changes?
[13:13] <photomatt> I shall fix those
[13:13] <westi> photomatt: yes those
[13:14] <hajii> Can I propose a plan of attack?
[13:14] <westi> my tentacles don’t stretch far enough to revert them 😉
[13:14] <filosofo> photomatt, what are your thoughts about buddyPress / bbPress integration? Are you thinking of doing that instead of making bbPress a canonical plugin?
[13:14] <photomatt> they’re not mutually exclusive
[13:15] <photomatt> have you tried out the buddypress integration? I didn’t realize it had gotten as good as it has
[13:16] <filosofo> What makes it different from a non-BuddyPress WP/bbPress integration?
[13:16] <photomatt> they basically embed/bundle the whole thing
[13:19] <photomatt> I’m pretty chill about 1.1 specifically, I think it can be a feature or two, and a cleanup of trac
[13:19] <PeteMall> ok I’m late
[13:19] <photomatt> I guess I’m a little scared of the plugin-thing so I’m procrastinating 🙂
[13:19] <hajii> I vote no new features, fix what is included first
[13:19] <hajii> maybe it’s 1.0.4 (or 3 or whatever we’re at)
[13:20] <hajii> hpguru opened a bunch of trac tickets recently pointing out things that are included that just don’t work correctly
[13:20] <filosofo> I was thinking bbPress as plugin integration would mean, e.g., using WP custom post types, or the like, instead of bbPress’s separate table structure.
[13:20] <filosofo> Or maybe like P2
[13:21] <filosofo> bbPress "posts" as WP comments on "forum" WP posts
[13:22] <photomatt> hajii: links? which do you think are the most important?
[13:23] <photomatt> I’m down with "no new features before bugs" in principle
[13:23] <PeteMall> photomatt: r u the only one committing to trac now?
[13:23] <PeteMall> I’m gonna work on a few tickets this week
[13:24] <PeteMall> christmas shutdown is good for open source projects
[13:24] <photomatt> yep 🙂
[13:24] <photomatt> if you’ve got some stuff you want to knock out I can give you SVN access too
[13:24] <photomatt> it’s easy peasy right now
[13:24] <PeteMall> that would be nice
[13:25] <filosofo> Regarding bbPress / WP integration, it would be nice to be able to use WP template functions for bbPress.
[13:25] <PeteMall> photomatt: u manage mullenweg.com right?
[13:25] <filosofo> I don’t think you can do that with the buddyPress stuff, right?
[13:25] * Salt is now known as Salt|afk
[13:25] <photomatt> yep
[13:25] <PeteMall> pm
[13:26] <hajii> for the record, I think the "
[13:26] * Thomas_Clausen (n=Ejer@1010ds1-rdo.0.fullrate.dk) has joined #bbpress
[13:26] <hajii> feature poll" was a bad idea.
[13:26] <hajii> open a can of worms
[13:26] <hajii> bug free == feature
[13:27] <filosofo> hajii, asking for suggestions isn’t the same as taking them 🙂
[13:27] <photomatt> exactly
[13:27] <photomatt> and perhaps we’re religious on a few things, I’m pretty anti-bbcode, for example
[13:27] <hajii> that’s true. But it’s also demoralizing to some people to give feedback and then never see it go anywhere
[13:27] <PeteMall> lol
[13:27] <hajii> not me, for example
[13:28] <hajii> but, people will EXPECT after submitting their suggestion in a feature poll
[13:28] <PeteMall> so whats the long term plan wrt to close wp integration as filosofo has been talking about
[13:28] <photomatt> hajii: I tried to make it clear it was feedback-oriented, not necessarily a edict
[13:28] <filosofo> hajii, same thing with https://wordpress.org/extend/ideas/
[13:28] <photomatt> speaking of that though, I was really surprised by "anonymous posting"
[13:29] <photomatt> what exactly does that mean?
[13:29] <filosofo> you don’t have to log in, like wp comments
[13:29] <photomatt> I mean I know, but I don’t understand the why I guess
[13:29] <hajii> some people feel that asking people to log in is a barrier to participation
[13:29] <filosofo> why do you see it as different from WP comments?
[13:30] <hajii> some people feel facebook connect will also remove a barrier to participation
[13:30] <filosofo> You don’t require commenters to log into ma.tt to comment, for example
[13:30] <PeteMall> alter egos of forum members
[13:30] <photomatt> interesting — that wouldn’t be too hard
[13:30] <photomatt> we’ll need better anti-spam and moderation though
[13:30] <filosofo> I have a bbPress plugin for "anonymous comments" that’s 98% done
[13:30] <hajii> that is/was a plugin as well, anonymous posting
[13:31] <photomatt> filosofo: could you put it as a patch on trac?
[13:31] <filosofo> sure
[13:31] <hajii> better moderation (forum specific) is the oldest ticket on trac, I think 😀
[13:31] <hajii> one of the two oldest anyway
[13:31] <photomatt> hajii: I’m a big believer in moderation — it’s my fav feature in WP
[13:34] <photomatt> did my connection drop?
[13:34] <filosofo> photomatt, for future reference, what’s the best way to get your attention for a trac ticket?
02[13:34] * tewwy_ (n=tychay@208.80.69.102) Quit
[13:35] <filosofo> since you’re the committer 🙂
[13:35] <PeteMall> everyone got quiet =)
[13:35] <photomatt> filosofo: skype, actually
[13:35] <photomatt> saxmatt02 is me on skype
[13:36] <filosofo> So you don’t mind if I ping you about a patch on skype?
[13:36] <photomatt> for bbpress, not at all
[13:36] <filosofo> ok, cool
[13:38] <PeteMall> anything else on the agenda for today?
[13:38] <photomatt> so it sounds like we have email notif and filosofo’s anon comments on deck
[13:38] <photomatt> hajii and PeteMall are into bugs, and we’ll go through trac
[13:39] <hajii> do you want me to do anything specific for those bugs in trac that currently exist?
[13:39] <photomatt> PeteMall has asked for direct SVN access
[13:39] <Thomas_Clausen> @PeteMall I’ll like to throw something in there!
[13:40] <Thomas_Clausen> Will porting posibilities from other forumsoftware be a concern in future releases of bbPress?
[13:40] <photomatt> PeteMall: the main rule is to put everything possible through trac, post patches there, get feedback and review
[13:40] <PeteMall> yup
[13:41] <photomatt> but in trunk we can be loosey goosey a little bit, the beautiful thing about SVN is it’s easy to roll back
[13:41] <photomatt> oh! and coding style
[13:41] <photomatt> https://codex.wordpress.org/WordPress_Coding_Standards
[13:41] <PeteMall> I’ve been meaning to talk about that
[13:42] <PeteMall> stick to the coding standards… remember – code is poetry
[13:42] <hajii> Wait, what was the slogan from 2weeks ago? We suck a little less with each release?
[13:43] <filosofo> Not sucking is the goal of all great poets. 🙂
[13:43] <photomatt> 🙂
[13:44] <photomatt> hajii: in trac I’d say most helpful is verifying bugs
[13:44] <photomatt> testing patches
[13:45] <photomatt> setting priorities and milestones
[13:45] <photomatt> being nice to new people that drop by, helping mentor them through getting a patch or idea in the right place
[13:46] <photomatt> generally what we call bug gardening in WP, though that is a weird term
[13:46] <photomatt> when you think about it
[13:47] <hajii> tending to the bugs, lovingly
[13:47] <PeteMall> yea… helping them grow. nurturing
[13:47] <photomatt> I like tummelling
[13:47] <photomatt> http://indexmb.com/tummling-have-you-heard-of-it/
[13:47] <hajii> like the dude who raised the moths in the silence of the lambs, kept them warm, fed them, gave them love
[13:48] <hajii> Death’s Head Moth
[13:48] <hajii> 😀
[13:49] <filosofo> well, on that note… 🙂
[13:50] <photomatt> haha yes
[13:50] <hajii> heh
[13:50] <photomatt> that’s a good ending point, unless someone else has anything they want to raise
[13:50] <hajii> nope, I will focux on bugs
[13:50] <hajii> in trac
[13:50] * Guest3427 is now known as Nightgunner5
[13:51] <photomatt> well thank you everybody
[13:51] <PeteMall> &lt;/meetup
[13:51] <PeteMall> 😉
[13:52] <PeteMall> missed the other side
[13:52] <photomatt> man the way mirc stores logs is annoying 🙂
[13:52] <PeteMall> &lt;&#47meetup&gt;

11 Responses to “2009-12-23 Meetup”

This one scares me:
[13:27] and perhaps we’re religious on a few things, I’m pretty anti-bbcode, for example

Does this mean that, because your are anti-bbcode, it won’t make it to bbPress even if it’s the most accepted standard for forums all over the net? This would be bad! Hope you can look pass that. Either way, a nice conversation. Anonymous posting would benefit (boost) anti spam too, of course this should be an option the admin can set. Perhaps not only for the entire forum, but also for part sof the forum (so some forum category can be replied without logging in) . Also good to read that forum moderation is discussed. We do need things like group and role moderation like other forums have.

I also like the redirect function in phpBB. When clicking a forum category you get redirected to another page instead of in the forum. Perhaps this is something nice to have, since it’s kinda new (but handy). Something to discuss about nexttime?

Does this mean that, because your are anti-bbcode, it won’t make it to bbPress even if it’s the most accepted standard for forums all over the net? This would be bad!

In Matt’s defense I offer this: Why re-create HTML with bbCode when WordPress comments have already proven you can just limit the HTML code available? Anyway, there’s always this for the die-hards: https://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/bbcode/ which, if bbPress becomes a plugin, shouldn’t be TOO hard to port 🙂

Anonymous posting scares me too! I have open comments on my blog, but you have to have one approved comment first. On a forum, I’d rather lock it down to make people accountable, since they can start topics as well as reply.

Thanks for making these logs available. I agree that you will need to work on the admin side a bit before implementing anonymous posting. Maybe take some of the best ideas from Nightgunner’s Moderation Suite and ck’s old “Move It” plugin.

Overall, I’m a little worried about the state of plugins for v1.0. While I’ve moved one of my forums to v1.0, I have decided to leave two forums at 0.9 until plugins catch up. Perhaps a small team can be assigned to update existing plugins, especially those that were abandoned by their authors.

Not everyone knows, or wants to learn bbcode.. everyone can use tinymc.. my 2 cents. I hate bbcode, most non-geeks probably are not big fans of it either, so unless your bbpress is going to be mainly for tech and geeks forums..

I really really like the idea of having a team of a couple of people to update plugins! Wish I could help, I am still learning php..

Would absolutely be thrilled to have the ability to attach files, documents, and pictures!

Aren’t there some themes out there that have code that let you add links and bold and such at the comment form? – the very basic stuff – like a tiny, tinymc?
Couldn’t we at least give a few buttons: add hyperlink, bold, italic, attach file.

These two simple things would make bbpress and buddypress worth using.
Well those and a photo gallery plugin – lol.

I installed bbpres on two domains in the past 7 days – looking forward to the revival.

I wholeheartedly agree on the point on no bbcode in core. When I first encountered bbcode, I had actually learned a little HTML prior to that. I was baffled to find that I was not allowed to use basic HTML to format my post, but rather a modified syntax that served the exact same results. Today, my greatest annoyance with with bbcode is that, though to smaller extent than wiki syntax, it is not identical to every forum software. Sometimes I make press releases that need to be posted on several forums, yet the slight differences in syntax forces me to make 4-5 different versions, all thanks to trivial differences.